Anime Rec: Deadman Wonderland

[shadowfireflame]

Thank you so much for the smoochies, faithwood! They really made my day. :)

Now onto the anime rec!

Today's rec, Deadman Wonderland, finished airing to episode 12 recently, and I really enjoyed it!

The anime takes place in an absolutely fascinating setting of a prison turned reality TV theme park where spectators watch the prisoners kill themselves and each other. And there may be more going on at the prison than it seems. Sure, the premise has been done before (i.e. The Hunger Games and TRON, just to name a few recent examples), but as a sucker for the trope of whole-cast-in-one-enclosed-space, this anime worked really well for me. Our hero, Ganta (voiced by Romi Paku, who was Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist!), is framed for the murder of his entire class and then sent to the Deadman Wonderland prison, where he meets an otherworldly little albino girl, a conflicted kleptomaniac, and a whole cast of nasty and cool characters. In his spare time (between bouts of fighting for his life using his own blood as a weapon), Ganta tries to catch the villain who really killed his friends. I quite liked Ganta and Shiro, but my favorite character was Yoh, even though he wasn't in the last few episodes much.

If you're interested in more of my anime recommendations, go here for my huge list of anime reviews.

In other news, who else is ridiculously excited for the last Harry Potter movie?!

Comments

here's some more anime recommendations if you need them

[(Anonymous)]

List, earl and fairy, dantalian no shoka,darker than black,psychic detective yakumo,chaos head, phantom requiem of the phantom,persona trinity soul,pandora hearts, bus gamer, blood +,black cat, bakuman, myself;yourself,monochrome factor,Angelique, shikabane hime,uraboku, shakugan no shana

Re: here's some more anime recommendations if you need them

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! These all look very interesting, and there are a lot I haven't heard of yet. I'll be sure to give them a look! :)

[appleling.livejournal.com]

*gapes* OMG you do anime reviews too?! Why didn't I come here sooner?! My sister's going to be so very happy to hear this - she likes stalking anime communities/forums looking for new stuff to watch and worship (and ship slashy pairs)

[appleling.livejournal.com]

That's it. I am so tracking you from now on!!

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Yay! *hugs* If you're interested, I have a list of anime reviews either here (with pictures) or here (without). :)

Okay, if you or your sister know of any anime with slashy stuff, I am so into that, and please let me know! Seriously, I basically watch anime for the pretty boys and the slashy overtones--in fact, that's pretty much why I do anything these days. *facepalm*

[appleling.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Thanks!! I'll check those out when I have time. I don't really watch anime these days. But I used to, like, all the time. Especially during the time when I worked as a subtitle-translator (only by contract).

As for slashy anime stuff (haha! You sound exactly like my sister when you say that!) - have you checked Aarinfantasy? Or YaoiOtaku?

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I've been on Aarinfantasy but not YaoiOtaku--thanks! Most of the yaoi stuff I've seen I've found from MyAnimeList, heh heh. Thank you! I haven't watched an anime in a few months, but I'm sure I'll be in the mood to watch another one at some point. :)

[appleling.livejournal.com]

I like mangas more (because they're more graphic *wink*) but I noticed that my sister liked browsing through YaoiOtaku, so maybe you'll like it too.

[appleling.livejournal.com]

Hey, my sister wanted to know between 1 to 10, how would you rate this anime's gore factor? Because she gets squeamish when there's too much blood.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Hmm...that's a good question. There's a lot of blood, but not in a necessarily gory way. Like, the main premise is that these people have blood that they can use as a weapon. They give themselves a small cut and then the blood solidifies to become knives and whatnot. I'd give it about a 7 or an 8 (1 being very little gore and 10 being a ton).

The main thing that bothered me were the "punishments" for losing a game in the arena, of which there were 2 or 3...so if you lose in the arena there's a roulette and you might also lose another body part. Mainly offscreen, but the threat was pretty suspenseful.

So I'm not a great judge of this sort of thing. I didn't find it too gory, but I kind of like seeing my main characters in pain, so...heh.

[appleling.livejournal.com]

(O.O) Wow. That sounds interesting! I'll definitely get her to download it (just so I can watch it even if she doesn't) now.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's definitely an interesting anime, although the story is not quite complete in just 12 episodes, so I'm hoping it will get a second season. :)

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Oh, and since I can't reply to comments on the Anime page of my blog for some reason, if you don't mind I'll reply here! Thanks for the recs! :)

Aha, I think I saw the first eps of "Prince of Tennis" and "Katekyo Hitman Reborn" but didn't really get into them. They're still on my list.

I saw the beginning of "Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru" and liked it; I'll finish it at some point! Thanks for the reminder.

OMG, *facepalm* I finished "Okane Ga Nai" and a bunch of other yaoi...so yeah, it's basically porn with the barest amount of plot, so I didn't include it here.

"Togainu no Chi" I've never heard of. Ooooh, it looks interesting. Thanks!

And "Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi" is by the same people as JJR, cool. Yay, recs! Okay, they are on my list! :)

As for watching, I don't download them. I bought Ouran because I loved it so much. Some (like "Black Blood Brothers") were on Hulu. My local library has a lot of the titles, which I appreciate, and on the ones they'll never have (like "Okane Ga Nai") I look for streaming sites like Funimation, Anilinkz, Animehere, GoGo Anime, whatever.

[appleling.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the first few episodes of Prince of Tennis and Katekyo Hitman Reborn are pretty... lame. But as the episodes drag on, I find myself strangely endeared to it. Especially certain characters. For Prince of Tennis, my sister ships Tezuka/Fuji (their friendship has extremely heavy slash connotations. The ONE pairing in the anime that so very clear, I suppose) very enthusiastically and so, she drags me in as well. But there are other pretty pairings too.

As for Hitman, well, I have to admit and say my opinion's probably a little bit biased because I'm in love with Hibari Kyoya (he reminds me of a japanese version of Draco) and my sister with Yamamoto Takeshi so that was our main motivation for watching it.

Yakitate Japan's another one I can't live without. God, the main character's so cute and silly and so, so cute! He's like the less 'crazy' but still adorable version of my fave Morita-sempai from Honey and Clover (but that's het).

And yes Togainu no Chi is... the epitome of HOTness! *wink wink*

As for the rest, they're cute I suppose. I'm not exactly a big fan of Okane Ga Nai (hell, you DON'T fall in love with your rapist!) but yeah, the rest has that bishounen and kawaii factor combined.

Keep up the good work!

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

OOOH THANK YOU THANK YOU for pointing out some of the main pairings/cute guys! Seriously, that is why I watch anime. I Googled some Togainu no Chi pics, and guh. *wipes drool*

Have you seen "Vampire Knight"? Because Zero is one of the most Draco-like characters ever! (Also in Kyo Kara Maoh, the character of Wolfram is similar, but a bit too whiny for Draco.) I ADORE Draco-like characters. Basically I am always on the lookout for a Harry Potter slash anime. :DDD

I've been meaning to give "Prince of Tennis" and some of others you mentioned another try. I know there's a decent fanfic community there, and when that exists, there's generally enough subtext to keep me a happy fangirl. So thank you for the recs!!! Now I just need some time to watch them all...sigh.

[appleling.livejournal.com]

Oh. You didn't know the main pairings in Prince of Tennis? Well, the most obvious is Tezuka/Fuji (Fuji reminds me of a bloodhound. Sleek, gorgeous, fast, potentially deadly and only Tezuka as team captain is capable of reining him back.).
2nd - Oishi/Kikumaru (this pair annoys the hell out of me because Kikumaru is bloody annoying! Do not ship this one! Or I'd be forced to thump you!).
3rd - Momoshiro/Echizen (But Echizen's a bit too young to be pairing him up with an older male - so, it's like pedophilia). Tezuka/Echizen

Then there are loads of others but they're subtle. But other pairings I liked are Atobe/Shishido and Ootori/Shishido. Ootori and Shishido is another pair that's quite obvious because they're overly protective of each other. One even gets irrationally jealous when their team captain places the other partner to play tennis doubles with someone else.

No, I've not watched Vampire Knight but I've heard of it. Now, though... I'm so going to watch it!

Hibari of KHR reminds me of Draco because of his cold standoffish behavior towards almost everything but when it comes down to it, he isn't as inhuman/cold as he made people believe him to be. That, and the fact that he's the most mysterious character in the anime (plus there are so many other hotties you can pair him with because he could totally be both Top or Bottom - whichever you prefer. Though my sister and I like to think of him as Bottom. Because of his rather lithe size and gracefulness. Like a cat.)

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Aah, this whole post made me smile! :)

3rd - Momoshiro/Echizen (But Echizen's a bit too young to be pairing him up with an older male - so, it's like pedophilia). Tezuka/Echizen

I don't think I'd be into that...but then again, in "Fullmetal Alchemist," I've read a few Roy/Eds, and basically the point of the thing is that Ed is pretty young for an alchemist...sigh.

Hibari sounds awesome!! (I almost always prefer Draco as a bottom, so if he's like Draco, I agree with you guys.)

I really look forward to watching these! :DDD

[appleling.livejournal.com]

d(^^,)b